This blog is dedicated to treating everyone - clients, prospects, friends, and family - as valuable partners. We should show them our gratitude through all our actions, including our marketing.

July 29, 2012

Appreciation Marketing – Business Relationships

This past week I had several conversations in which we
discussed business relationships.Business
relationships include our customers or clients, our prospects, our family
members, our friends, and anyone with whom we come in contact during each and
every day.That sounds like quite a long
list, and it should be.Think of
everyone with whom you meet, see, and speak each day.Those are your business relationships,
chances for you to impress and influence others, sometimes for the good and
sometimes for the bad.That is up to
you.

We need to include everyone as business relationships.We never know who we may meet today in
passing that we might meet again in the future in totally different context.You never know if the person whom you may
meet today may be in a networking meeting tomorrow or at a company that you
want to solicit as a prospect in the future.As people change companies, either by choice or by circumstance, you
find yourself with prospects in different situations from which you originally
met them in the past.

Previously, we discussed that you should never prejudge
anyone.That means that we should
consider everyone as a business relationship, no matter what their present
situation is, because that situation may change.The customer of today in one situation may be
the prospect of tomorrow in an entirely different situation.The failed presentation today may be the
accomplished sale tomorrow in a different circumstance.Therefore, we must consider our impressions
at all times, not only in the present but for the future.

Do you come away from every presentation with a completed
sale?What do you do when you fail to
make a sale?Your mode of operation must
be consistent and impressive in all cases.All cases mean all cases.It does
not mean that you treat customers or clients different from prospects.It means that you treat everyone the same,
even if they never will be your customer.Does
never really mean never?Does
the failed presentation today mean that the prospect will never buy from you in
the future?

Even if they don’t become your customer in the future,
perhaps they can be your best referral source.I look for a great referral source in every situation.To me a referral source may be much more
important than a client.They trust you
to treat everyone that they refer to you as a valuable asset.You need to show them every time that they
refer anyone to you that you are worthy of their confidence.Never fail to live up to their faith in you
because you are affecting their reputation to all of those referrals.Of course the great client should also be a
great referral source.

Business relationships may include your family and your
friends.Do these people know what your
business is?Would you want your
neighbor to tell you about the great opportunity that they just discovered when
it is the same as the one your business has?Missed another possible sale there, did you?Kick yourself all the way home because you
never mentioned what you do.How many of
those do you want in your past?That
will dampen your mood.

Do you realize that what you do today may affect your
success tomorrow?Do you know that the
person you insult today might be the targeted decision maker that you want to
impress in the future?Everyone knows
many people; all of them should know someone with whom you want to do
business.Your impressions can be your
best advertising or your worst nightmare.Your comments about your experiences are welcome here, or you can email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com,or call me at 360-314-8691.Does your past
haunt or help you?